The Warrior Queen
by darkestboy
Summary: The Doctor and Ace wind up in familiar place where one of them is reunited with an old friend. Set in between Battlefield and Ghost Light and a sequel to Because He Died.


**Name: **The Warrior Queen  
**Characters:** 7th Doctor, Ace McShane, Peri Brown and Yrcanos.  
**Synopsis: **The Doctor and Ace wind up in familiar place where one of them is reunited with an old friend. Set in between _Battlefield_ and _Ghost Light_ and a sequel to Because He Died.

_Would you forget me if I died?_

Doctor, are you there?

Are you even listening to me?

DOCTOR!

Professor!

"Peri?" the Doctor jolted himself out of a reverie and found that the young girl standing in front of him was not particularly pleased with being called a different name.

"No, I'm Ace, Professor," Ace replied as she sounded a tiny bit annoyed as the TARDIS had landed and the Doctor had been staring at the controls in a fixated manner. "Were you dozing off again?"

"I was not dozing off," the Doctor replied tetchily as he straightened his hat and grabbed his umbrella and began to open the doors. "I was just remembering."

As they stepped outside, the Doctor knew he had landed on a familiar world of Thoros Beta and on this world, there was someone whom he owed both a visit and an explanation to. He was determined to find her and prove that he could keep his word.

"Remembering Peri?" Ace asked as she looked around the strange world in which they had landed on. Ace was pretty impressed with her new surroundings.

"How do you know?" The Doctor waited for a response but Ace found herself a little preoccupied with her new environment to answer him back.

As she gazed at the green sky and watched her feet dip into the pink water, she instinctively kicked some of the water in the Doctor's general direction with a childlike affection and stopped when he gave her a look of disapproval. "Just having a laugh."

"I know," the Doctor smiled as he pointed towards the sand with his umbrella. "But let's get out of the water, eh?"

"Fair enough," Ace agreed as both of them stepped onto dry land. She gave a look to the TARDIS stuck in the water and added, "I hope it doesn't sink while we're gone."

"Should be fine," the Doctor replied as he began to look around. "Was the last time I was here. I wonder where she is."

"Your friend?" Ace asked and then she spotted something coming towards them. "Professor!"

It was the Doctor's turn to be distracted because while Ace was staring at a brutish looking man coming towards them with an army of four soldiers at his side, the Doctor found himself transfixed on a woman several feet away from him, dressed in a slightly scantily clad warrior gear with a glittering crown on her head whilst holding what looked like a jagged spear in her right hand. He recognised the woman instantly but she still looked like a mirage to him.

"Oi, get your hands off me, you great big lump," Ace yelled, trying to kick at Yrcanos as he grabbed her by the arm.

"Yrcanos, let her go," the Doctor shouted at him, both looking at the warrior king holding onto Ace tightly and also at the woman who was coming closer towards them.

"Seize him," Yrcanos ordered his soldiers as they went for the Doctor but the Time Lord managed to outwit all four of them by getting two of them to bump straight into each other and tripping the other two with his umbrella.

"Should've watched where you going," the Doctor smirked at the defeated soldiers and then at Yrcanos. "I've already asked you to let my friend loose. I won't ask again, Yrcanos."

"You heard him, you oaf," Ace kicked at him once again before he threw her to the ground and a spear was pointed at her throat by the large man. "Let go of me."

"How do you know my name?" Yrcanos grunted at the Doctor, looking him up and down with suspicion. "I swear I recognise you but from where?"

"Use your head," the Doctor smirked as he pointed towards his own mind. "The face might have changed but I'm still the same man. Oh, alright then, I'm the -,"

"- Doctor?"

A woman's voice had finished that sentence. The same woman clad in a warrior's clothing and was now pointing a spear at the Time Lord with caution. The Doctor turned to look at his old friend curiously.

"It's you?" Peri looked at the man dubiously, eyeing his physical features and attire. "You've changed again. You still dress badly."

"Nice to see you too, Peri," the Doctor said coolly. "Nicer if you weren't pointing a spear at me or your husband pointing one at my friend's throat."

"Yrcanos, help her up," Peri motioned at her husband and Yrcanos went to help Ace up on her feet while Peri placed her spear in the sandy ground and looked at the Doctor with folded arms. "You took your time. I thought I'd never see you again."

"I never thought I'd see you wielding a spear," the Doctor said as he looked at Peri up and down. "How long has it been?"

"Since Lord Kiv and everything else?" Peri raised her eyebrows. "Six years. I've been here for six years. Married to Yrcanos for five and a half of them."

"It was a slow courtship," Yrcanos admitted. "My lady insisted that we had gotten to know each other better before becoming my bride."

"Six months is slow?" Ace asked as the Doctor gave her a look. "It is a little unusual, Professor."

"Different world, different culture, Ace," the Doctor reminded his companion.

"Not so different, culturally," Peri smiled at the Doctor as Yrcanos came to her side before looking at Ace with interest. "Professor?"

"Seems right for him," Ace said brightly.

"I suppose it does," Peri agreed, looking at the girl with her hair in a tight pony tail wearing a black jacket that looked about three sizes too big for her. Peri decided she liked her on the spot and from the smile she received from the girl, it appeared the feeling was mutual.

"Beats porky any day of the week," the Doctor said, remembering the time both him and Peri were on Necros.

"That was only once," Peri laughed a little, before placing her hand on the Doctor's face and studying it. "My, you really are different. Not just the face, something else too. I just don't know what though."

"We should head back, my Queen," Yrcanos warned his wife as he looked around the beach. His soldiers were beginning to regain consciousness. "My men need the rest and you two look like you could do with a decent meal."

"Very kind of you," Ace smiled at the imposing king before looking at the Doctor and Peri once again. "Sorry, what is his name?"

"Yrcanos," both the Doctor and Peri said in unison, before smiling at each other.

"Maybe you're not so different, after all," Peri smiled with affection as she broke the gaze between herself and the Doctor.

"We'll see, Peri," the Doctor smiled at Peri as he pointed his umbrella. "Lead the way. Come along, Ace."

Ace just smiled at the man as the two of them walked behind the Doctor and Peri who were talking quietly and sometimes laughing a little as they journeyed back to the palace where Peri now reside with her husband. Ace knew both of them had a fair amount of catching up to do and Yrcanos himself had told Ace bits and pieces that he knew about the Doctor's past with Peri. From the way they looked at each other, Ace felt she had learned a little more about her Professor than she realised she wanted to but it was something good she had learned. He kept his promises. It had been a long time since Ace had encountered someone who did that and now she was travelling in all of time and space with a man who did.

- The End -


End file.
